Storms last night

[david]

Saw terrific Cb over the Adriatic last ngith. Fantastic storm, really
cracking off for the entire length of time I flew over it - maybe 30
minutes? Big blighter! What was unusual was that I watched individual
lightning bolts flicker across the cloud and also down to earth. Usually
only see light pulses.

Lovely!

It got me thinking though...electrcal discharges are made when discreet
masses of air brush past each other and static potential is developed.
Now, under the sea similar things happen - discreet bodies of water
seperated by thermo clines and halo clines constantly brush past each other.
So do we get under water lightning (clearly we do not!)??? I figured not,
because in the cloud situation each parcel of air is a confined system
whereas under the sea I think that's not the case. Any one got a better
idea though??

Anyway, back to the clouds last night...there we were, FL360 watching this
cliud. Just as we thought we'd got the scale of the thing sorted another
plane flew under us and apparently into the anvil. Then we realised we had
under-estimated the size of the cloud by about a thousand times! These
things are SOOoooooooo big.

David

[Dave]

david wrote:
... snipped

Post by david
It got me thinking though...electrcal discharges are made when discreet
masses of air brush past each other and static potential is developed.
Now, under the sea similar things happen - discreet bodies of water
seperated by thermo clines and halo clines constantly brush past each other.
So do we get under water lightning (clearly we do not!)??? I figured not,
because in the cloud situation each parcel of air is a confined system
whereas under the sea I think that's not the case. Any one got a better
idea though??

... snipped

Post by david
David

... probably got something to do with the conductivity of the medium
they're floating around in ;-)

Dave

[Bob Walton]

Post by david
It got me thinking though...electrcal discharges are made when
discreet masses of air brush past each other and static potential is
developed. Now, under the sea similar things happen - discreet bodies
of water seperated by thermo clines and halo clines constantly brush
past each other. So do we get under water lightning (clearly we do
not!)??? I figured not, because in the cloud situation each parcel
of air is a confined system whereas under the sea I think that's not
the case. Any one got a better idea though??

It occurs to me that static potential only builds up on insulators, not
on conductors. Air is pretty much an insulator. Seawater conducts
electricity AFAIR.


Bob Walton
(eMail to my first name is more likely to reach me)

[david]

You are right.

The sea water of course provides an open circuit i guess.

Still underwater lightning would be fun wouldn't it??

D

Post by Bob Walton

Post by david
It got me thinking though...electrcal discharges are made when
discreet masses of air brush past each other and static potential is
developed. Now, under the sea similar things happen - discreet bodies
of water seperated by thermo clines and halo clines constantly brush
past each other. So do we get under water lightning (clearly we do
not!)??? I figured not, because in the cloud situation each parcel
of air is a confined system whereas under the sea I think that's not
the case. Any one got a better idea though??

It occurs to me that static potential only builds up on insulators, not
on conductors. Air is pretty much an insulator. Seawater conducts
electricity AFAIR.
Bob Walton
(eMail to my first name is more likely to reach me)

[Peter]

Post by david
The sea water of course provides an open circuit i guess.

It proves a pretty good *short* circuit :)

Post by david
Still underwater lightning would be fun wouldn't it??

It would need an awful lot more energy :)